Dan Sultan – Get Out While You Can (2009)

Some albums announce a new talent. 'Get Out While You Can' didn’t just announce Dan Sultan—it kicked the door off its hinges and left the hinges humming. Released in 2009, this was the record that transformed Sultan from Melbourne pub-circuit secret into one of the most compelling voices in Australian rock and soul.

Sultan had already built a reputation as a live performer who could go from velvet croon to full-throttle roar without breaking a sweat. On this second album, he bottled that raw energy and poured it into a collection of songs that sound both classic and fresh—like a long-lost Otis Redding session beamed through a dusty Fender amp in Fitzroy.

The title track, “Get Out While You Can,” is a swaggering —part gospel warning, part rock ‘n’ roll exorcism. Sultan’s voice doesn’t just sing the lyric; it lives in it. He delivers every line like it’s carved in stone, shifting from smoky intimacy to full-bodied howl. It’s the kind of voice that makes even casual listeners stop mid-sentence and ask, “Who the hell is that?”

Elsewhere, Sultan flexes his versatility. “Old Fitzroy” is the album’s emotional anchor—a bittersweet portrait of inner-city grit and fading dreams, written with sharp detail and deep empathy. It’s the kind of song that takes you down the backstreets and leaves you there with a lump in your throat.

Then there’s “Your Love Is Like a Song,” which drips with vintage soul. Horn stabs, rolling piano, and Sultan’s powerhouse vocal make it sound like it could have walked out of Muscle Shoals in 1968. But Sultan never falls into pastiche—he’s not imitating the greats, he’s standing shoulder to shoulder with them, adding his own distinctly Australian phrasing and storytelling.

Musically, Get Out While You Can roams freely: rockabilly licks, country blues twang, Stax-style soul grooves. The production (helmed by Jonathan Burnside) keeps everything organic—rich but uncluttered, with room for Sultan’s voice to stretch out and shake the rafters. You can almost smell the valves warming up in the amps.

What makes the album remarkable is its balance of grit and grace. Sultan’s writing has a cinematic quality, full of sharp characters and emotional weight, yet there’s always a sense of celebration humming underneath—even when he’s singing about struggle or heartbreak. It’s music that swings its fists and opens its arms at the same time.

Get Out While You Can went on to earn Sultan the 2010 ARIA Award for Best Male Artist, a moment that confirmed what audiences already knew: this was no flash in the pan. This was a voice built to last.

A modern Australian classic, soaked in soul, grit, and the kind of voice you don’t forget.